Lisbon's Baixa Pombalina candidate for UNESCO World Heritage Site

Lisbon City Hall is formalizing the Baixa Pombalina's application to World Heritage, with the request to the UNESCO National Commission, highlighting the "exceptionality of this historic area" and the contributions to the history of humanity.

"We are very committed to obtain the classification of Baixa Pombalina as a World Heritage Site. Lisbon is a unique city: historic and innovative, traditional and cosmopolitan, with a unique identity, but always open to the world," said the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas (PSD), quoted in a statement sent to Lusa by the autarchy.

The mayor highlights the city's heritage assets, "particularly those that recall the impressive response capacity that the Portuguese people had to the 1755 earthquake, one of the most destructive ever," considering that "are endowed with an exceptional universal value and deserve to be distinguished and protected.

The Baixa Pombalina's candidacy process to the distinction attributed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), to protect sites of outstanding universal value, took place during 2022 and the request was formalized this Friday, January 13, 2023, with the communication of interest that this monumental set be inscribed on Portugal's Tentative List.

The Lisbon City Council considers "essential" the inscription of the area in the Portugal Tentative List, which is periodically revised, so that "a future classification may be possible, justified by the exceptionality of this historical area and its contributions to the history of humanity".

Source: Idealista News